New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister, The Hon. Bill English called on delegates at IPWEA’s Conference to advocate public-private partnerships.
He noted that local government has been hesitant to adopt public-private partnerships and encouraged the audience to consider this option to fund projects.
“We are committed to future PPPs. More importantly, we are committed to the kind of knowledge and understanding that they generate.”
According to Mr English, the government has learned an enormous amount out of five or six PPP negotiations that they have conducted, which has been applied across departments.
Data collection was another issue he laboured the importance of to delegates, emphasising the importance of comprehensive data in helping the government understand and assess a project.
“You do not have to have a large government bureaucracy to have good data,” he told the audience. He pointed to the government’s $30bn social services investment where meta data has been successfully used to shape the project.
As he told delegates, “It adds quite an elegance to the management of assets”.
When government is able to see the performance of infrastructure it is better able to assess the need for investment in this area, he said.
“I think we are seeing a growing will to get to grips with this issue,” he added.
To close, he pointed to the ‘Kiwi resilience” as being a key factor in his confidence in the future of the country’s economy following what he described as a “reasonably difficult recession”.
“That resilience in the Kiwi mindset is what gives us confidence the economy can grow reasonably well.”